For the third year in a row the nation's best short course racers travel the country to attend the highly anticipated, highly competitive, and action packed Shortcourse Showdown Nationwide Tour. The tour was developed, is directed by, and is made famous by the one and only Scotty Ernst.

Round one of the tour kicked off last month at Tacoma R/C in Tacoma, Washington with great success to start the 2013 series. The next stop is R/C Excitement in Fitchburg, Massachusetts this weekend. For the remainder of the series I will be travelling on behalf of LiveRC and Scotty Ernst Productions to each tour stop bringing you the LiveRC Race Blog from each event!

Each event will be broadcast on LiveRC using the standard track webcam (no moving cameras or All-Access Passes), with live scoring and live audio. The LiveRC Race Blog will be updated throughout each event with photos, pit stories, new products, race reports, and more!

Stay tuned as we update the LiveRC Race Blog each step of the way!

Friday - March 22, 2013 10:42am

Practice Day

After a day of travelling yesterday, we have finally arrived at R/C Excitement! Yesterday's travel consisted of broken wheelchairs, overweight bags, and a top notch face plant exiting the plane. After meeting up with our travel and room mates for the weekend, Scotty Ernst and Dave Duncan of JConcepts, we took a lovely car ride from the airport an hour north...south...east...maybe west to Fitchburg where R/C Excitement is located. When Scotty Ernst is behind the wheel of a rental minivan there is really no certain way to tell which direction you are going, which direction you should be going, and/or which Scotty Ernst batman u-turn will be next.

A good night's sleep, McDonald's breakfast, and a morning trip to Wal-Mart has us set and ready to go for a full day of practice and sign in. The pits are filling in fast and "factory row" is filling up with the big guns including TLR's Anthony Mazzara, Matt Chambers, Toddie Anderson, Team Associated's Brian Kinwald, AKA's Greg Hodapp, JConcepts Dave Duncan, and a list of the northeast's fastest short course racers.

The R/C Excitement track layout for the event is supreme, offering a nice variety of high speed, rythm, and my personal favorite...BIG air. No official times have been logged in yet, and the track is "scrubbing in" but a LOT of drivers are going fast already. The center section of the track offers mod class drivers three option lines, the supercross whoops are true to scale and offer a wild ride from start to finish, and the step-on-step-off on the front straightaway is calling out the horsepower as some drivers have discovered they can quad over the entire jump from the outside lines.

Off the track we have been introduced to the entire R/C Excitement crew and hobby shop. A fully stocked shop with some of the most friendly and helpful staff members behind the counter keeps racers busy shopping, hanging out, and having a good time. The shop also has setup two R/C flight simulators in which are a popular stop for passing racers. My old man, Homer, and Scotty have been caught sneaking away for some fly time, both of which have set new records of most virtual R/C airplanes destroyed in five minutes.

Practice is underway and we are looking forward to seeing some lap times as more and more drivers hit the track!

[UPDATE - 2:57PM]

The track has really gained traction, and the "fast cats" are starting to hit the track now. Several new trucks hitting the track this weekend and looking strong. So far we've seen AKA's Greg Hodapp running the new Tekno SCT410, TLR's Matt Chambers running the new SCTE 2.0, and our first sighting of the new Atomik R/C 4x4 SC in action as well. The layout offers a lot of good passing points and option lines. More and more of the mod drivers finding BIG AIR going either triple double or double triple in the rhythm section, and quad jumping the front step-on-step-off lap after lap.

In addition to the factory drivers, RCE locals are laying down some fast laps as well. At this point in ALL classes the competition is going to be ROCKIN', and it's anyone's game!

Off the track we have been occupied looking at the latest products in the pits. JConcepts new SCB wheels, tires, and body (as seen at Cactus), the new AKA Wishbone 2.0 tires, new Atomik R/C 4x4, and various other trick parts and pieces.

(Greg Hodapp and AKA in the house displaying the new 2.0 series short course tires. The new 2.0 tires are the same popular tread patterns on a new wider AKA carcass. The Enduro 2.0, Wishbone 2.0, and CityBlock 2.0 are on pictured on left in each photo with the standard version on right.)

(The new Atomik R/C 4x4 short course truck.)

The entry count is continuing to grow as more and more racers roll through the doors. Stay tuned as tomorrow kicks off qualifying!

Saturday - March 23, 2013 - 6:23am

Qualifying Day

It is bright and early here in Fitchburg, the sun is shining and racers are ready to get qualifying underway! The track is freshly prepped, painted, and decorated with series sponsor logos and the R/C Excitement crew is finishing up the final touches on things before getting started.

Already this morning we have ran across several new things. First up is the new Viper VTX8 ESC. Nick Malato, of Viper R/C, is on site this weekend providing support to Viper R/C users, displaying the latest products, and doing a little racing of his own! The new ESC looks good with a clean and compact design, signature Viper colors, and Viper ProGauge tuning and setup.

Next up we just happen to stop by the empty pits of Brian Kinwald this morning where he conveniently left the body off his Team Associated SC10 4x4. Kinwald has always been known for his carbon fiber creations, and he hasn't disappointed with this custom chassis cover.

While almost everyone is ready to race, AKA's Greg Hodapp is busy fixing his truck after a massive crash doing a "cool line" yesterday. He says the crash was a collision in midair with another truck, HOWEVER, since no one actually saw this massive crash doing a "cool line" we like believe he dropped it off the driver's stand instead.

Stay tuned as qualifying is getting set to get underway at 9:00am Eastern Time. Using the track webcam (no moving cameras or All-Access Passes) the racing action will be broadcast live right here on LiveRC including live scoring, audio, and video.

We are having flashbacks of our trip to Argentina for the IFMAR World Championships as the internet comes and goes as it pleases. The R/C Excitement crew actually upgraded their internet service for this event, and as luck would have it the system has come crashing down. The crew is climbing through the ceiling, running wires, and working hard to get things back up and running for the LiveRC live broadcast.

In the meantime, Round 1 has been completed and is in the books! Intense racing in all classes and some serious close finishes! The northeast is packed with talent and the local boys are showing the rest of the racers just how it's done. TLR's Anthony Mazzara was the man of the hour in Round 1, taking TQ in 2 classes and well on his way to a Pro4 TQ until trouble struck. Teammate, Matt Chambers, looked strong in Pro2, but quickly faded with a DNF due to a slipper problem.

Mazzara busted out a huge triple into the center rhythm section bringing the crowd to a cheer in Pro4. Soon after more drivers attempted the risky line. Team Associated's Brian Kinwald railed the bowl turn before only to QUAD into the section! R/C Excitement's very own, Toddie Anderson, then pulled out a huge quad on the front straight followed up by a triple down the hill. CRAZY lines forming as drivers are hungry for those top spots.

Qualifying is based off of your one fastest round, so everyone is looking for that LIGHTNING round! We are anxious to see how Round 2 unfolds!

Here are your top 10 in each class after Round 1:

[UPDATE] 5:12pm

Round 2 is finally complete, and was a HUGE improvement for many drivers. The track is really holding up well and providing the racers with a great racing surface. The BIG AIR lines from Round 1 have calmed down a little and racers are getting smoothed out and showing consistent lap times. Round 2 was the same heat races, however, the starting order on the grid was based off of the finishing position from Round 1.

Towards the end of the round the signature Scotty Ernst Spectator Raffle took place as well! Spectators flocked to the track as every spectator received one free ticket to win a Fiesta 1:16 Rally Car courtesy of Traxxas! Our winner celebrated his birthday only days ago and added to his presents with a brand new RTR!

Tomorrow afternoon will be ANOTHER spectator raffle, as well a racer raffle full of great prizes from this years sponsors.

The man on a mission right now is STILL TLR team driver, Anthony Mazzara. Mazzara is running Stock 2wd Short Course, Mod 2wd Short Course, and Mod 4wd Short Course. After Round 2, he sits in the TQ position for all three. Another round left tonight and one more tomorrow for drivers to knock him off the top spot, and with the close times it is still anyone's game.

After Round 2 was a re-sort for Round 3, and here are your "A-Main Resorts" after two rounds:

Sunday - March 24, 2013 - 6:33am

Main Day

It's Sunday, and that means one thing...the LAST CHANCE for drivers to make the top six and get a spot in the prestigious a-mains later this afternoon! We are getting set for another round of qualifying this morning with drivers flooding the track for some last minute practice, tuning, and tweaks.

If you have never been to Fitchburg, Massachusetts and happen to be a coffee and donut lover, we HIGHLY suggest you visit sometime. Back home local donut shops and good quality coffee to wake you up in the morning is hard to come by, however, in Fitchburg fresh brewed coffee and delicious donut shops are quite plentiful and have kept us going strong this weekend.

Speaking of donuts, yours truly has been working hard to diet and shed some pounds. Apparently the diet is not doing the trick as I had hoped...seeing how just after Round 3 of qualifying I blew out my second wheelchair of the weekend. In 6 years of being in a wheelchair I've never had a major breakdown, but in a 5 day trip to Boston I have destroyed two. Luckily with the innovative thinking and assistance of Homer and those pitting nearby we have hillbilly fixed this beast to keep rolling for these final few days.

As round 4 is getting set to get under way, stay tuned as we will be posting your top 8 after round 3 shortly!

NEWSFLASH: MyLAPS is here selling and trading out old transponders, and by the swarm of male racers that stormed the table, we are going to assume they could very well have a record number of transponder sales from one event...

[UPDATE] 9:09am

While the final round of qualifying is under way we have been cruising the pits finding all sorts of interesting things. First up our CrAzY Taxi friends have gone OLD SCHOOL today with the Traxxas Slash covered in '55 Chevy Body!

Next up we came across this guy. He and his crew are the reason I am able to race this weekend. My hat is off to him and R/C Excitement for putting together a very nice fold down platform for me to drive from in the wheelchair! THANK YOU SIR!

Last but not least our pit neighbor, AKA's Greg Hodapp, was showing his love for the animal kingdom as he has been diligently working on a large donation of bedding for a nearby hamster shelter. Perhaps he was simply softening foams by punching holes, but we prefer to think he was saving hamsters one AKA insert at a time.

[UPDATE] 11:51am

The main events are getting under way and the action is heating up! After an intense final round of qualifying the following is your top 10 for each class (top 6 make the main, bumping 2 from the B-Main):

NOVICE

Caleb Jennings

Justin Miner

Steve Nadeau

Kody Bartkus

Matt Pritchard

Colin Lancaster

Todd Stacy

Keith Palazzola

Luis Grahmbell

Matt Swanson

SHORT COURSE BUGGY

Dave Duncan

Steve Jean Charles

Scott Jakes

Kevin McDaniel

Paul Medina

Trevor Collings

Justin Faford

Frank Sweeney

STOCK SHORT COURSE

Anthony Mazzara

Dave Duncan

Casey Rettke

Raul Garcia

Paul Medina

Jamie Frenier

Jerry Longobardi

Bill Gajowski

Charles Bruno

Steve Jean Charles

TRAXXAS STOCK SPEC SLASH

Kregg Kerr

Megan Meany

Al Clark

Frank Sweeney

Trevor Collings

Peter Bartlett

Pat Macdowell

Dave Meany

Donnie McCaffrey

Ben Ricks

TRAXXAS SLASH 4x4

Bill Gajowski

Frank Sweeney

Brad Pelletier

Dave Meany

Matthew Surer

Colin Lancaster

Pat Macdowall

Jim Lucchesi

MODIFIED SHORT COURSE (2wd)

Anthony Mazzara

Kyle Rhodes

Brian Kinwald

Jim Edmonds

Frank Henry

John Cravotta

Carl Doran

Bill Gajowski

Toddie Anderson

Greg Hodapp

MODIFIED SHORT COURSE (4wd)

Anthony Mazzara

Matt Chambers

Frank Henry

Jim Edmonds

John Cravotta

Carl Doran

Mike Garrison

Greg Hodapp

Chris Cristo

Nick Sass

Racing throughout all of qualifying has been SO CLOSE between all classes. One of the closest races so far has been the final race of qualifying with 4wd SC. Mazzara, Chambers, and the rest of the pack banged wheels, flipping, tumbling, and making insane moves fighting for that top spot. Mazzara would take the win with Chambers in second, both becoming the first and ONLY drivers of the weekend to hit the 19 lap run.

Before the mains was the signature Scotty Ernst Productions Racer Raffle. TONS of killer prizes for the racers all provided by the series sponsors.

While many walked away winners, one man stands out and deserves a shout out of his very own. This guy has been a volunteer turn marshall ALL DAY LONG. Literally spending hours turn marshalling just to help others. In the end he was one of the first winners of the raffle grabbing him a fresh set of AKA tires, an appreciative racer (Nick Malato) then donated his prize to him, and last but not least after ALL of the tickets went back in for the Futaba 4PL radio...HE WON AGAIN! That is R/C KARMA if I've ever seen it! This guy deserved an awesome weekend for all the volunteering he's done, and continuing to do... and he got it!

(A brave pizza delivery man barged through the raffle crowd to deliver a pizza, in turn he got to draw the Grand Prize winning tickets!)

The spectator raffle for Sunday has now taken place and it was a PACKED house of people in line to win! Two lucky winners walked away with prizes! Our first winner took home a new Traxxas Rally Car, and the second a Team Associated SC10 4x4 RTR!

[UPDATE] Monday - March 25, 2013 8:02pm

Well after a long day of travelling and internet-less connections we are finally home and able to wrap up the Race Blog! First and foremost, we want to thank all of YOU viewers who support LiveRC. While this weekend was full of technical difficulties and lack of internet limiting the live broadcast, we greatly appreciate your patience and cooperation!

Sunday's main events were action packed from the I-Main to the A-Main in all classes. Some of the closest racing we have seen in years from all classes took place this weekend.

The Novice class A-Main was perhaps some of the most intense racing we have seen. The entire field was banging wheels and swapping positions for those top spots. Justin Miner and Caleb Jennings would swap the lead back and forth crossing the line only nine tenths of a second apart at the finish! Miner took the win with Jennings in second and Lancaster in third. Matt Pritchard and Kody Bartkus were also in the mix, but misfortune ended their races early with a DNF.

Short Course Buggy is a growing class and attracting some major talent. At R/C Excitement, it was none other than our good friend "Double Dee" Dave Duncan of JConcepts who would dominate qualifying and the A-Main. Duncan was spotted running the latest in JConcepts wheels, tires, and SCB body (see pics above). Kevin McDaniel drove a strong race finishing up second with Steve Jean Charles only seconds back in third.

Stock Short Course was all Anthony Mazzara. Mazzara (TQ in stock, mod, and 4wd), started out front and drove a clean race for the win. In second, it was Team Associated/JConcepts driver, Dave "Double Dee" Duncan, who would finish up a strong second place with Jerry Longobardi finishing up in third.

Traxxas Slash 2wd Spec was dominated by Kregg Kerr. Kregg did not have fast lap of the race, but was nearly flawless, taking him to victory by 15 seconds over Frank Sweeney and Al Clark. Megan Meany started in the number two spot, and was clearly in the running for the win racing the boys, but after a few struggles finished up in 4th!

Traxxas Slash 4x4 Spec class was the Bill Gajowski show as he stormed qualifying to take TQ, and the overall win by over 12 seconds in the main. Brad Pelletier and Matthew Surer drove smooth and consistent jumping from mid-pack up to the podium for second and third overall.

In Mod 2wd SCT, Anthony Mazzara would start out front as he took a dominant TQ in qualifying. It was Kyosho driver, Kyle Rhodes, who would jump out into the early lead and cruise to a solid victory over Mazzara and Kinwald. Rhodes was the only driver to dip down into the 16-second lap range in the main event, and was clearly on rails. Mazzara and Kinwald were seperated from the field as well allowing them to cruise to a second and third overall behind Rhodes.

In Mod 4wd SCT it was all Anthony Mazzara. Mazzara, running the TLR SCTE 2.0, jumped out front early and never looked back. Teammate Matt Chambers looked strong as well, but struggled with traffic dropping him back in the pack. Local racer, Jim Edmonds, would pilot his ride to a second place finish a lap back from the leader and five seconds ahead of Carl Doran in third.

In the end, Round 2 of the Short Course Showdown will be a race that forever lives in our memory books. A huge thank you goes out to Scotty Ernst, Dave Duncan, the ENTIRE R/C Excitement crew, the event sponsors, the racers, and of course YOU the LiveRC viewers for making it all possible! We are already looking forward to Round 3 less than a month away hosted by Trackside Hobby and Raceway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!